The Green Pajamas

Why Good Men Go Bad

He rode out of the sunrise, over the snow, into the trees
Looking for vengeance, looking for death, looking for me
He figured I was well up ahead - he figured wrong
And as he rode by I put my gun to my eye and – poof – he was gone…

First time I seen her, I wanted Maria – I wanted that mouth
He had freed her from bandits, up in the hills somewhere down south
And she fell in love, so pretty and young – him handsome and strong
They’d been married a year, very happy, I fear…when I came along…

You ask me why it ended this way
Why good men go bad, I really can’t say

I didn’t think she would struggle so hard and so wild but she did anyway
I never set out to hurt her, didn’t mean her to die but she did anyway
And when he got home his darling was gone but only I knew to where…
Where there’s a rock on her chest and a rag in her mouth in her mouth 
And weeds in her hair…

You ask me why it ended this way
Why good men go bad, I really can’t say

And I’ve lived on nothing but whisky so long
It don’t take a doctor to know my liver is gone
Can’t drink away that summer, can’t drink away my life
Or those big, brown eyes…

So goodbye to the moon and the Mexican stars and the fine man I killed
And the little wet angel, all twisted and dead, who howls in these hills…

You ask me why it ended this way
Why good men go bad, I really can’t say

_____________________
by Jeff Kelly
(c) 2011 St. Brigid Publishing BMI